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The Good Life

If you want to know what is meant by the good life, direct your attention to Jesus Christ. His life was the good life incarnate. What was life like for Him? Take a look at His last days on earth and you will see the secret of His satisfying life. Shortly before He died he said to His disciples, “I would that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be complete” (John 15:11). The good life, then, is a life that has an inner joy. Then hear this: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). The good life is a life that has a deep current of profound peace, irrespective of circumstance. Ultimately God is in control.

To any person attending His crucifixion, it must have looked as though everything was lost. No new great leader. No plan. No freedom from the Roman empire…etc. However, hanging on the cross and looking at the people below, Jesus quotes from Psalm 22 to get our attention (see Matthew 27:46). Note: There was no way that He personally could have exerted any influence on what they were doing with His clothes….. (Ps 22:17-19, compare with Luke 23:33 or John 19:23-24). It is God’s signature! Jesus is saying: It is I, your God, who hangs on this cross; for you, to bring you back to Me. It is about Me that the scriptures are speaking.

The last words from Christ’s lips, as he hung and died under the Jerusalem sky, were short and simple, but triumphant: “It is finished” (John 19:30). He had carried out His divine mission. The good life is the awareness of fulfilment. Every person’s life is a plan of God. God has a plan for you. The good life is the deep feeling that we are fulfilling God’s plan and purpose in our life.

[partly from “Hours of Power”, 16 April by Dr. R.H. Schuller/ partly by H.Pool ]